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Tuesday 30 April 2013

100 Facebook follower celebrations

While I was away in Tasmania I was so excited to find that I had reached 100 followers on my Facebook page.  To celebrate I have decided to do a Flash Freebie of one of my paid products for 2 hours only everyday this week.  To find it you will have to read the clue on my FB page (they are super easy clues...sshhh.)
Remember this is only available from my Facebook page and while you are there why not check out my Free for Fans freebie as well, exclusive to FB fans.  Just click on the button below to find out what the Flash Freebie is today


Thanks to all those who follow me and I hope you enjoy this weeks Flash Freebie's

Sunday 28 April 2013

Home again, home again




Hi friends,

Well I have just got back from spending a week in Hobart, Tasmania with my in laws and had a lovely time visiting.  I have included a picture of where Tasmania is for all those Northern Hemisphere people who don't know where the heck in Oz is Tassie.



It is the little part down the bottom in yellow.  It is called the Island State and is quite cold as after Tasmania there really is not much land mass until you get to Antarctica.  So I'm sure you can guess what Winter will be like...brrrrrr

Well the good news is we just found out that we are MOVING to Tasmania as my husband has just recieved notice of his new posting and starts in Jan 2014......the bad news is I HATE the cold weather....not just hate.......HATE!!!!  I am seriously thinking of asking my Grandma to knit me a onesie...maybe like this because I can just see me leaping around like that!  







Well I am sure I will NEVER  get used to it and I am researching underfloor heating and obviously will have to buy many, many, many new pairs of boots.  Anyway......I am happy that we will be closer to my in laws and my kids will have an opportunity to grow up around some family, if you are a military family you understand what a rarity that is!

Well before I go I wanted to share the other awesome thing that happened to me while I was in Hobart.  I just happened to be holidaying there at the same time as one of my bloggy buddies Emma from Clever Classroom, I was so excited to catch up with her and my family spent a lovely afternoon with her and her husband.  Poor boys got their ears talked off about all things teaching, blogging and TpT, no seriously we were well behaved, heehee.  Here is a photo of me and the beautiful Emma, who by the way has a new blog Clever Classroom click here to check it out!


Emma        Me

It was so windy that day that they had to cancel the Salamanca Markets for the very first time in like a hundred years but that did not deter us!  I was soooo excited to finally meet up with Emma, she really is a kind and thoughtful person who loves to laugh and is just as gorgeous in real life!

Well that is the round up from me at the moment.....oh one more thing I reached 100 followers on my Facebook Page so I will be planning something special......stay tuned.  Backto school tomorrow!

Tuesday 16 April 2013

Mothers Day around the corner.

Hi friends,

Let me start this post by saying how shocked I was this morning when I woke to the news of the Boston bombs.  Tragic and scary.....my heart goes out to the victims, their families and the people who live in the area, it must be so scary to have something like that happen in your neighbourhood.

I have been on holidays the last few days and have enjoyed my time doing nothing.....that's right nothing, well that is not strictly true, I have cleaned the house (twice) for a house inspection, yelled at my kids to keep their hands off the walls, yelled at the cat for shedding hair, yelled at the husband for leaving dishes around then lay down for a much needed rest, that yelling wore me out.

When I say nothing I mean school work.  I had this great plan to get all my planning done this week before next week when we head to Tassie for the last week of the holidays.  That plan has not happenend.....at all....*sigh*

What I have been doing, apart from cleaning is to revamp a Mothers Day activity for TpT.  It will be getting close to Mothers Day when we go back to school and I like to be ready for it you can check out my Mothers Day pack by clicking on the pic below.


I have made sure I have included templates for those kiddos that may not have Mum around or perhaps is cared for by someone other than Mum.  I have also included both US spelling (MOM) and UK/Aussie spelling (MUM)

I will be revamping my Fathers Day card and gift set as well, now that I have some more great ideas and I will also offer both of these packs as a bundle.

Enjoy the rest of your week, especially those on holidays.  Give your loved ones an extra tight squeeze and send a thought to those who can't.

Wednesday 10 April 2013

How Pinteresting PE and games edition







Hi friends
I have been a bit absent with my How Pinteresting series because, well, life got in the way....you know how it is.  So I have been busy, busy, busy at school with Athletics practice and Cross Country today, so this week I am looking at Physical Education, games and sports to get our kids moving!  Hope you enjoy it.

Early morning fitness is a great way to start the day and get your students ready for learning. Here are 5 physical education games you can use. http://topnotchteaching.com/time-saving-tips/5-physical-education-activities-you-can-use-for-early-morning-fitness/

This links to a fantastic blog TopNotch Teaching with some fantastic ideas for morning fitness.


Physical Education Games - Robots

This links to a video explaining this easy game of robots.

2) Gym class and recess were always my favorite parts of the day

This pin links to an article that talks about the important aspects of a physical education program with some games for students to play that also have a focus on social abilities.

Physical education ideas for homeschoolers including a link with a list of common games kids play during traditional school.

I just loved this pic, but it also has a link to a blog that has some great ideas for physical activities for homeschoolers that could aslo be relevant in the classroom


Physical Education resources and games for teachers and educators.

Another link to some ideas and examples of games.

Well I hope you feel Pinspired to get your kiddos moving and exercising, quite frankly I am exhausted just looking at it or maybe that was the Cross Country supervision today.


Let me leave you with this little story from today.  On my checkpoint today I was at a crossroad on the track, I had to direct students in one direction from the start of the race and direct students finishing the race toward the finish line.  It got a bit hectic for sure but the kiddos worked it out.....that is until a man on a horse, yes A HORSE!  trotted into the park and wanted to cross the track.  Now I have had to do many things in my teaching career but directing students and horse with rider....no that was a first for me today, heehee.  

Well it is things like this that keep things interesting I guess.  2 more school days and then holidays, Yeehah!


Tuesday 9 April 2013

Help Needed Big Bargains Available

Earlier this year our sunny State of Queensland was hit with some major flooding.  One of the hardest hit areas was Bundaberg, many houses and schools were damages and or destroyed.  Some of the hard working TpT sellers have put together a pack to help out Bundaberg East State School, this pack will be available until the 30th April and all of the proceeds will go to the school.

Check out the fabulous things you can get.......

all this for only $15!


Click on either of these pics to help out and support Bundaberg East State School!




Monday 8 April 2013

Spring into Contractions

I just wanted to pop in really quickly to share my latest pack with you, it is all about contractions with a Spring theme.
It includes a poster for you to display as a visual reminder for students, Match and Write, Contraction Caterpillar Craftivity, Contraction Snap and some extra printables for you to extend or consolidate.  You can get yours here from my TpT store as usual it is on sale at 20% off for the first week.




If you are a Facebook follower check out my Free for Fans button to get a freebie from this pack, if you aren't a FB follower click on th FB button above and like my page to get your freebie!

I enjoyed making this pack as it is just heading into Autumn here and starting to get quite chilly in the mornings so to make something bright and cheerful helped me forget about the cold weather a coming!
Enjoy your week


Thursday 4 April 2013

Teacher toys

I was going to post this last night but could not pass up the opportunity to join in Farley's linky...so it got bumped to tonight.
I want to share with you these waaaayyy cool teacher "toys" I got in the mail this week.  These talking points are so much fun


Basically you have a 10 second message you can record on them, then when you press them they playback the message.  I could see mountains of ideas using these and of course I could not wait to use them, so our first activity had to be a whole class activity so that we could ALL use them.  So I recorded a question about bullying on each recorder then each group of 5-6 children had to discuss the question and record their ideas or experiences on a piece of paper.  Each group was given a coloured Sharpie so we could see what ideas belonged to which group, the only "rule" was that they were not allowed to write something that had already been written.  Here are some pics of them hard at work.


 You can see the talking point in the middle of each table

Here is some of their ideas of  "Can you think of a time you or someone else was bullied, what happened."  They only had 5 minutes at each station so their responses were quite short, however the discussion preceeding was amazing!




This little boy is writing down what you could do if you saw someone being bullied.  As you can see each group had a different coloured Sharpie so it was easy to see what each group had contributed.

I was so impressed with the amount of discussion these talking points created and it meant that those kiddos who usually get left behind with having to read were able to make a meaningful contribution without worrying about their ability.   I plan on using them in Daily 5 next, oh my goodness the possibilities are endless!

The other really fun teacher "toy" I got in the mail a couple of days later were these babies

                                            
It is a homophone game called Double Duel, but I really just wanted it for the buzzers, hehe.  Each buzzer makes a different noise and the "caller" read the clues to what the word is eg a fathers male child and a bright object in the sky, the student has to answer and then spell the hompohones.  We had a blast with these but be warned...they are loud!  We also had a group quiz in the afternoon about their knowledge of our Austalian unit we have been studying this term.  I also put it into my Working on Words Daily 5 box.....any guesses if it was popular!

Well that is it! I have to say they were not all that expensive and I got them from Amazon.
I have had to have some stern words with a frown about making sure that we treat them gently if we want them to last for more than one game and only one student had to leave the game out of 25, not bad odds really.




Wednesday 3 April 2013

Currently for the first time!

I am linking up for my FIRST currently with Farley at Oh Boy Fourth Grade.  I have really enjoyed reading everyone's posts each month and always thought, I must do that and never got around to it.....well I got my tail into gear and finally got to it!  So here goes!


I love cooking shows and just can't get enough of them, I wouldn't say I am a great cook but I do love to get ideas from them, although it does make me hungry when I am blogging.

This post was actually going to be about my new talking points and buzzers that came this week. 
 I have to thank Rikki at The Hive for her post on finding these little babies and I will post more about the activities we have been doing with them this week.
Bills.....need I say more!
We have 8 school days left before our end of Term 1 holidays, we will be heading down to Tasmania to visit my in laws and I am looking forward to relaxing and catching up with them, ( I like my in laws and get along really well with my mother in law, yes we may be abnormal, heehee.)
Now some of you may say that a new pair of grey boots is not a need but when you are a shoe-a-holic It. Is. A. Need.  My other boots are lonely and need a new friend.
My advice for new bloggers is to Google as many tutorials as you can find, not only will you find some great you tube info but there are sooooo many blogs that offer great tutorials as well.

I will definitely be posting about my buzzers and talking points tomorrow.  Now go ahead and link up!